In their leadership capacity, members of WEEL/AFT-WEA nominated members who, like Dorothy, have actively and consistently supported the child care workforce and their union. Those nominees were Tyson Fellman, April Krubally, Marci McLaughlin, and Pam Wilson. At the Leadership meeting on May 30th, Dorothy Gibson announced the winner of the award that bears her name and gave the following speech.
I am pleased and honored to be here today to present this award to one of our members who has been -- and will continue to be -- a leader in growing WEEL and moving the agenda of the early childhood workforce.
I am also deeply humbled and amazed to be giving an award with my name on it. It never occurred to me that I would have an award named after me—especially not while I was still alive! And because this award recognizes a member of WEEL for their organizing leadership, it’s all the more potent for me. I’m reminded of the line from "Solidarity Forever": "For what force on Earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one."
And the next line is, "For the union makes us strong." I believe that right down to my toes. So much about the labor movement makes sense to me as the vehicle to raise up and engage child care teachers and providers. It's about building relationships, it's about using your words, it's about respect, it's about supporting each other -- especially when someone ends up face down in the sand box. It's about recognizing the inherent value in each of us, and the difference we can make when we join together in our common struggle to demand the dignity and respect we deserve and to insist on taking our rightful place at the table in the public forum. Our charge in this is nothing less than to change the balance of power in our society. When we organize, we can do that.
I grew up not in a union household, but in one with a long and deep commitment to working for social and economic justice… because each of us is unique and beloved and inherently valuable. When I started working for the union, I wasn't entirely sure what my father, an Episcopal priest and my touchstone, thought of unions. So I asked him. He said, "It seems to me, sin being what it is, you've got to have collective bargaining."
Collective bargaining: the process that levels the playing field and requires the employer (however they're defined) to come to the table and decide—with the employees—how life will be at work. What a beautiful idea. And the only way we're going to get that is by building power--our kind of power, the power of numbers, the power of ideas and voices drawn from the field, where the work happens. The union provides the conduit for exercising that power. We have the perfect platform for speaking truth to power because we aren't beholden to the powerful. We don't have to worry about upsetting the bureaucracy or the funders. We will ally with them when it makes sense to do so, but on our terms.
The reason we can do all these things is ORGANIZING.
Organizing builds power and it also creates engagement -- I look out at this room and I know that for everyone here there was a moment where you took a chance and it changed your life, maybe in a quiet way, but here you are in this room full of leaders and activists.
I feel incredibly privileged to be able to do this work -- to use my big mouth and stubborn self to help advance the cause of this workforce and ensure that young children get what they need. My mother can't believe that I have made a career out of being pushy--just goes to show you, the things that drive parents crazy can turn out to be gifts!
As organizers, we are pushy, but we also know that we have as much to learn from the people we are organizing as they could ever learn from us. One of my favorite quotes is from an Aboriginal woman named Lily Walker who said "If you are here because you have come to help then you are wasting your time. But if you are here because your liberation is bound with mine, let us begin."
You know, I have never worked in child care -- I have done lots of babysitting, but we all know that is NOT the same thing. But I am a better parent because of the child care teachers my children had -- I learned from them about how my kids were developing and they made me feel like a partner with them in raising Isabel and Simon -- I wished they lived with us now that they are teenagers! I also believe that as we build this structured and recognized voice, you will command the respect you deserve as professionals. When child care providers become empowered, it's not only for their own good, but for the good of society. A trusted, empowered early childhood professional will not only help parents by saying, "Talk with your child, read to your child," they will also be able to say, "We will help you learn how to break the cycle of abuse for this generation of children."
That may seem like pie in the sky, but as Mary Jo often says, if you can't imagine it, you can't organize it. We have come a long way. When I look around this room and see all of these beautiful posters and all of this literature, I just can't believe it. I have to tell you a story. When I started working with AFT, WAEYC gave us a table in the hall for our stuff and we didn't need it because we had nothing to put on the table. That was in 2003! Now we're giving an award!
First I want to acknowledge everyone who was nominated: Marci, Tyson, Pam and April--you are all great examples of leadership and an inspiration to everyone in this room.
The person who has been lifted up for this honor this year is Marci McLaughlin. She has been a tireless advocate for the workforce and this organization. She has given tremendous amounts of energy and time because she knows that growing WEEL and building relationships is how we're going to make sure child care providers get the resources and support they need. She was able to crack a nut in Spokane that no one else had--engaging owners, with directors and teachers to become one group acting in solidarity. She owns Primary Beginnings Child Care, has three kids of her own and gives up a Saturday a month for the AFT Washington Executive Board meetings and will go anywhere, anytime we ask her to. Marci is an inspiration and I am honored to give her this award. Thank you.
